Short answer: If you are under investigation but not yet charged, that window is the most valuable one you will get: it is when a charging decision can still be influenced and when evidence still exists. Do not speak to police, do not contact the complainant, do not delete anything, and get a lawyer immediately.
Why Pre-Charge Is the Best Time to Get Help
Once charges are authorised, the case has momentum and a public record. Before that, three things are still possible that are much harder afterwards: influencing whether charges are brought at all, preserving evidence that is about to disappear, and shaping what the prosecutor believes about the case before they commit to it in writing.
The Four Rules
- Do not talk to police. Not to explain, not to clear it up, not "just to give my side". You cannot talk your way out of an investigation, and your statement will be the strongest evidence against you.
- Do not contact the complainant — not directly and not through friends or family. It can support an obstruction or intimidation charge and it reads as guilt.
- Do not delete anything. Messages, photos, apps, accounts. Deleting can be a separate offence and it destroys the record that most often exonerates.
- Do not consent to a search of your phone, computer or home. Make them get a warrant — warrants have scope limits that consent waives entirely.
What Your Lawyer Should Be Doing Immediately
- Sending preservation letters for video, phone records and social media before they are overwritten
- Contacting the detective so all communication runs through counsel
- Assembling mitigation to present before a charging decision is made
- Identifying and interviewing witnesses while memories are fresh
Then Understand What You Are Facing
The exposure depends entirely on which charge is brought — see the four CSC degrees compared, the full range of sex crime charges, and what registration would mean.
If police have contacted you, call me at 616-438-6719 before you call them back. I answer directly, at any hour.
How You Usually Find Out
There are four common ways. A detective calls and asks you to come in for a conversation. Police arrive with a search warrant for your devices. Child Protective Services contacts you about your household. Or someone tells you an allegation has been made.
All four are the same moment: an investigation is already underway and you are the subject. The instinct to cooperate immediately and clear things up is understandable and almost always damaging.
If Police Are at Your Door With a Warrant
A search warrant authorises the search described in it. It does not obligate you to answer questions, and officers will often ask them while the search proceeds precisely because people talk in that situation.
Ask for a copy of the warrant. Do not obstruct the search. Do not consent to anything beyond what the warrant covers — consent expands the scope, and scope is one of the most productive grounds for later suppression. Say that you are not answering questions without a lawyer, and then actually stop talking.
If CPS Is Involved
A Child Protective Services investigation runs alongside any criminal case, and the two are connected: statements made to a CPS worker can reach the police file and the prosecutor.
CPS proceedings have their own deadlines and consequences for your family that a criminal lawyer alone may not cover. Coordinate the two from the start rather than treating them as separate problems.
What the Pre-Charge Window Is Actually For
Used well, that period does four things: it preserves evidence that is about to vanish, it routes all contact through counsel so no further statements are made, it assembles material the prosecutor sees before deciding whether to authorise charges, and it identifies witnesses while memory is fresh.
Used badly — by giving an interview, contacting the complainant, or deleting messages — it produces the evidence the prosecution needed. Almost every hard case I take on became hard during this window.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to go in for an interview if a detective asks?
No. You are not obliged to submit to a voluntary interview, and declining is not evidence of guilt. Have a lawyer contact the detective on your behalf.
Does hiring a lawyer make me look guilty?
No, and prosecutors do not treat it that way — retaining counsel during an investigation is ordinary. What genuinely damages people is an unrepresented interview.
Can police search my phone without a warrant?
Generally they need a warrant or your consent. Do not give consent. Make them obtain a warrant, because warrants have scope limits that consent waives.
Should I tell my employer or my family?
Discuss it with your lawyer first. Conversations with almost everyone other than your attorney are not privileged and can be compelled later.
What if I already talked to the police?
It is not fatal. Get exactly what was said, and how, in front of a lawyer as soon as possible — statements are frequently challengeable on Miranda grounds, on voluntariness, or on how they were recorded and summarised.
Related Pages
Talk to Me Before You Talk to Anyone Else
If you are under investigation or have been charged, the decisions you make in the first days matter more than almost anything that happens later. Do not speak to police, do not contact the complainant, and do not delete anything. Call me at 616-438-6719 — the consultation is free and I answer 24/7, across Kent, Ottawa, Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Muskegon, Newaygo and Van Buren counties.